Strictly speaking, what we’re examining today isn’t a set in the sense that you walk into your local dealer and ask for a Congressional set, and he or she plops a steamer trunk-sized box in the back of the old minivan. What is offered up here are three separate-sale items: a postwar-style GG1 electric locomotive, a four-car aluminum car set, and a two-car add-on set. You can start out with the GG1, but you can add as many passenger cars as you like to make the train of your choice.
What’s in the boxes
Newbies to the hobby may want to note that when we say “postwar-style GG1” we’re talking about a toy-like model, with a coupler-to-coupler length of 14 inches (about 56 feet in O scale), rather than a scale model. Postwar-style models are great for getting started in the hobby – or building a three-rail empire in the old-school mode. They are compact and traditional.
As I’ve noted previously, I’m not a big fan of the smaller postwar-style GG1 in general, though I understand its undisputed iconic status. What does appeal to me is how well made the Williams product is.
The Williams model is the no. 41799 postwar-style GG1 electric locomotive in the five-stripe Tuscan Red paint scheme. The model carries the Lionelesque number 2360, and it re-creates the look of the original toy. It musters plenty of heft when held in your hand and is a pretty solid piece of construction.
Of course, the model looks pretty darned close to the original. That was Jerry Williams’ goal way back in 1979 when he re-created this postwar icon.
Over the years, the model has been improved (a second can-style motor was added, as were traction tires, and the horn sound has been enhanced). Still, there are some subtle differences between the Williams and Lionel GG1s.
Sitting alongside the Lionel Conventional Classics no. 2340 GG1, the nose seams at the doors and the safety bars appear to be a bit thinner than on the Lionel version. But then the Lionel version may simply have had more paint applied. Not all the forward and aft windows seem to be the same size on both models. The safety bars on the windows of the Williams model appear to be a bit wider than on the Lionel model.
Lionel’s Tuscan Red was a darker brown, while the Williams color had more red in it. Lionel’s gold stripes look, well, gold, while my eye estimated a bit more of a yellow tone in the Williams stripes.
So both models were close to – but not quite – clones of one another.
The Williams model is sturdy. The shell, as well as the pilots, trucks, wheels, and couplers, are die-cast metal. The GG1 features the same “climb over the stripes and climb in the window” feature I noted in my review of the Lionel 2340 in the September 2009 CTT.
The tooling for the casting was clean, with perhaps the exception of a tiny mold seam spot on the roof (the Lionel model has a similar mark). Smooth areas were smooth, textured areas had details raised sufficiently to allow you to feel them with the tip of a finger.
Add-on details included two pantographs and two horns on the roof and four stamped-steel ladders on the sides.
Three of the four ladders came into contact with the middle cast-in axle on both sides of the sideframes. This wore off a bit of paint, and in one case, perhaps sheared off a bit of the metal, too.
Though the ladders appeared to be in alignment, I’m guessing that they may have become bent and caused the problem. However, we’ve had the Williams Girl’s set GG1 for several years, and it has undergone considerably more handling yet shows no evidence of metal-to-metal contact on three of the four truck sides. You can probably correct this problem with a gentle outward tug using a pair of pliers.
Paint application on the Williams GG1 is first-rate. Especially notable are the locomotive number and gold accent up on the corners, just behind the marker jewels. The four Pennsy keystone emblems were neatly done, and the striping and nomenclature marking “Water” and “Fuel oil” were very nice.
The passenger cars
The four-car set features two Pullman cars, a dome car, and a rear observation car. The two-car add-on set has a baggage car and another Pullman. The cars have aluminum shells and a stamped-steel frame with end caps for the vestibule areas.
The car shells measure 15 inches long (60 feet in O scale), and they tally 16¼ inches for coupler-to-coupler length. So these aren’t the longest cars rolling down the pike, but they are a respectable size.
The wheels, trucks, and couplers are die-cast metal. The couplers operate magnetically (that is, over an uncoupling section).
The aluminum extrusions are all crisp, and the application of the road and car names is excellent. The keystone emblem adds a bit of style from the days when the railroad wanted to get its logo in, while news hounds photographed celebrities detraining.
The cars have two power pickup rollers, one on each truck. The interior is illuminated, showing off the silhouette window strips. As nice as fully rigged interiors with people and seats may be, a good old window stripe (just like what I had in my childhood postwar Lionel no. 2400-series cars) works fine for me.
I’m a fan of Williams passenger cars, both plastic and metal. I have a set of plastic 70-foot two-tone gray New York Central scale heavyweights, as well as a set of two-tone aluminum streamlined NYC cars. I also have a few unpainted NYC aluminum streamlined cars. That being noted, the Congressional cars may be the smoothest running of the bunch.
Give a car a nudge with your finger, and it will start to move. My 14-plus-year-old cars have to think about it before they begin to roll! So I’m very pleased with the production quality of the cars as well as their operability.
On the test track
The GG1 operated virtually silently, save for the click-clack of the rails. The motors were responsive.
Our low-speed average was 16.5 scale miles per hour, and our high-speed average was 66.7 scale miles per hour. Drawbar pull was 2 pounds, 2 ounces.
The horn is the Williams True-Blast II digital horn that, once depressed, gives an automatic grade-crossing signal sequence. The bell is also nice, and it triggered on/off easily.
The GG1 looked nice and was very satisfactory to run. The cars ran smoothly, and the lights were fairly flicker-free. Since there wasn’t any fancy indirect lighting from the car ceiling, the two bulbs were easy to spot, which didn’t bother me one iota. The cars are a great addition to any fleet.
So, under the Bachmann banner the Williams product line continues to be basic, bullet-proof, and affordable. In today’s wild and wacky world, it is nice to have something you can count on.
Price: $269.95 (no. 41799 GG1 locomotive), $369.95 (no. 43099 four-car set), $189.95 (no. 43049 two-car add-on set).
Features: Die-cast metal construction, can-style motors, horn and bell (locomotive), extruded aluminum bodies, operating couplers, interior illumination (car set)
Staff comments: This handsome train set brings back wonderful memories of Lionel’s second version of the Pennsy’s Congressional train, as cataloged in 1956 only. Here’s your chance to pick up a classic with modern features. – Roger
Like most Williams engines, the mimimum speed is very high. I have reduced this problem by rewiring the motors to run in series. The track voltage will be higher when the engine starts and lights in the cars and engine will be brighter for a given speed and you have use of more of the throttle range on your controller. This modification is limited to engines with 2 motors unless you use a resistor in place of the second motor. Try it, it works great………………Stu Kuyat
stuart, maybe you could put a diagram together for ctt showing how you wired the motors in series. Does the top speed suffer?
I purchased the GG1 after Christmas '08 and can testify to its quality. It looks great and runs well too. It has the capacity to pull just about anything you put behind it.
The stock I purchased was manufactured before Bachman took over production, but have since purchased a box car that was made after the take over, and it has the some quality as before. Perhaps this is one buy-out where the consumer won't suffer.